disturbed

[ dih-sturbd ]

adjective

1. marked by symptoms of mental illness:

   a disturbed personality.

2. agitated or distressed; disrupted:

   disturbed seas; a disturbed situation.

noun

, (used with a plural verb)

1. Usually the disturbed. persons who exhibit symptoms of neurosis or psychosis.

disturbed

/ dɪˈstɜːbd /

adjective

1. psychiatry emotionally upset, troubled, or maladjusted

Other Words From

• un·dis·turbed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of disturbed¹

First recorded in 1585–95; disturb + -ed ²

Example Sentences

At the board meeting Tuesday, a local resident, Lois Osborn, pressed Hamercheck about the incident and said she was “very disturbed” by news reports about it.

From Washington Post

Referring to the Marshals Service inspection, Jonathan Smith, executive director of the Washingon Lawyers’ Committee, said, “When I see the kinds of problems being described, I’m upset and disturbed but not surprised.”

From Washington Post

After the researchers finished raking through the leaf litter and moved on, the birds would approach and poke through the disturbed area.

From Popular-Science

The more the Missouri lawmaker dug into the history of the fight, the more disturbed she felt about it as a voting rights issue.

From Washington Post

Are you endlessly fascinated by the human condition or disturbed by it?

From The Daily Beast

Her distinctive shredding can also sound very disturbed, and the more disturbed, the better.

From The Daily Beast

Here, only the twisting grey concrete under his tires disturbed the desolate wild.

From The Daily Beast

When Druz visited Crimea before, he said, he felt disturbed by the debauched atmosphere.

From The Daily Beast

Disturbed by these suppositions and deciding not to tell my wife, I made the tea and took the tray to the bedroom.

From The Daily Beast

I slept some hours, but was perpetually disturbed with dreams of the place I had left, and the dangers I had escaped.

From Project Gutenberg

She is, however, a severe critic of her own work and is greatly disturbed by indiscriminating praise.

From Project Gutenberg

But Mary had gone home after dressing her mistress, and the fat boy came back again more disturbed than before.

From Project Gutenberg

He ruminated a little with a most disturbed expression of face, and left the room in search of Mary.

From Project Gutenberg

With both Tom and me it was friendship at first sight, and nothing until the final severance came ever disturbed its course.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• agitated
• troubled